


Thus Went Her Plot

by Just_Trying_To_Get_Around_You



Series: ATLA + 35MM [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Crazy Azula (Avatar), Gen, I really like this song, POV Azula (Avatar), Songfic, also im not done with the show, azula is sara, but this fic entered my brain, i also really like atla, iroh has one line, ty lee is julie, zuko and sokka are there for like ten seconds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:21:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25293856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Trying_To_Get_Around_You/pseuds/Just_Trying_To_Get_Around_You
Summary: Azula will become Prom Queen whatever the cost.Songfic based around "The Ballad of Sara Berry" from 35MM.Please read the warnings.
Series: ATLA + 35MM [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1834183
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Thus Went Her Plot

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Graphic description of injury, murder, implied dismemberment, minor character death, mentions of child neglect, implied child abuse, cop mention
> 
> Stay safe everyone

Azula Kumara was perfect in every way. With the way she carried herself, you'd think she was royalty, her hair styled just so and her clothes meticulously picked out so that she could look better than everyone else.

Her brother was off at college, his only support being his pathetic uncle and his tea shop. Azula hated both of them, and she was glad they were gone so that all of Father's attention would be on her.

She attended class with her perfect regal poise and smiled a bit at the announcement of the date for Prom.

"There's no doubt I'll be queen this year," she told Mai as they walked to lunch together. "I mean, there's no reason they can't vote for me. I'm quite literally the perfect candidate."

"It does seem pretty likely," Mai mused in her normal apathetic tone.

They sat down at their usual table, and Azula noticed that Ty Lee was absent. Usually she was the first to their lunch table, skipping about and being all energetic and touchy-feely. The empty seat between Mai and Azula felt like a ravine-

And then the tension was broken when Azula forced herself to speak.

The two talked for a while, aimless chatter mostly about prom and how Azula already had a dress and was ready for the best moment of her high school year while Mai occasionally interjected and took bites of her apple.

\---

The next week, Ty Lee was back. It was impossible to _not_ know that she was back. Everyone was talking about it. Azula seemed to be the only one who didn't know the story.

"Apparently she was in an awful car accident," one boy whispered to his friends by the main doors.

"I heard it wasn't an accident," a girl with barrettes in her hair muttered to her girlfriend in the halls. "My friend said it was a hit and run."

"Her right leg got amputated! Apparently the bone was sticking out!" a junior with a ponytail yelled during lunch, making everyone at the surrounding tables feel a little less like eating.

Azula finally saw Ty Lee after school that day, rolling up to her in a wheelchair, her right leg replaced by a stump still covered in bandages.

"Hey Azula!" she called, waving her arm wildly to make up for the fact she couldn't cartwheel over and bounce anymore.

Azula gave her a smile, an easy, false one, and waited for her to roll over.

"Mai told me you were in the running for Prom Queen! I'll be trying too but I hope we get to end up on that stage together!"

Azula didn't immediately process what Ty Lee had said. "Thank you, Ty Lee, but I'm sure- wait, you're running too?"

"Yeah, of course I am! Mr. Piandao suggested it, so I thought 'why not'."

"Well," Azula replied with a tight smile and an easy lie, "I wish you luck too."

Ty Lee somehow smiled bigger. "Thanks!"

Azula didn't know at the time, but that was the moment her world started coming crashing down.

\---

Applications for Prom Royalty started the following week and Azula was hoping to be one of the first to sign up. Really it wasn't a big deal but she had to seem like she really wanted it. Because she did. She really did.

\---

Interlude

"I mean Ty Lee's honestly one of the most chipper around the school. Azula's just kinda...mean."

"It's really a shame about her leg. I feel bad that she can't move around the way she used to."

"Why does Ty Lee even hang out with her anyway?"

"Well she deserves to have something nice after that disaster."

"I wasn't planning on voting for Azula anyway."

\---

When voting started, Azula wasn't afraid that she would lose. In fact she thought that this Prom Queen thing was in the bag. She could already picture herself on that stage, wearing the sash and crown and the dress her father bought for her and-

No.

No way.

A look at the current count saw Ty Lee as the candidate with the highest number of votes. And Azula had _none_.

If she spent the rest of the day shooting death glares at Ty Lee while her "friend" wasn't looking, well, that wasn't anybody else's business.

\---

_"Sara" her father said "Life is a prom_

_I know you won't disappoint me and mom"_

\---

Azula was pulling her own hair out, staring at the current votes.

She needed to be queen. She needed to be queen so badly because she needed to prove to her father that she was perfect and so much better than her absolute utter _failure_ of a brother ~~who she missed more than anything she only wanted to see him again~~ who didn't deserve to come back home.

There were other girls (6 total) in the running for Prom Queen and they all had a decent amount of votes but Azula still had _none_ and it was driving her up the wall.

Prom was coming up fast, and she didn't think she could handle anymore of her father's frosty disappointment. She had to get more votes. She _had_ to.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

\---

"-a chance, at least."

"Hey Zuzu!"

"Hello Azula. Why are you calling?"

"You know I love you, my darling brother!"

"...cut to the chase."

"Well, I may need just one little thing from you."

"Spit it out! I don't exactly have all day!"

"How do you get people to like you?"

"I...what?"

"I'm not repeating myself Zuzu, I've already humiliated myself enough by even _calling_ you."

"Azula." A laugh. "I...I don't know what you mean."

_"Zuko this is serious! You had friends your senior year, how did you make them?"_

"I...talked to them. I actively tried to fix the mistakes I'd made and accepted help from people who offered it."

"But I haven't made any mistakes! And I don't know how to talk to the whole student body before Prom Night and-"

"Prom? This is about Prom?"

"You wouldn't understand. Father never expected anything from you."

…

"This is _important_."

...

"Zuko?'

"Consider it, Azula."

_click_

_"Zuzu?"_

\---

Far away, in a tea shop named the Jasmine Dragon, Zuko Kumara slammed his phone down on the counter and resisted the urge to shatter it against a wall.

"What was that you were saying about giving her a chance?"

"Shut up, Uncle."

\---

If Azula was mad before, now she was livid. She still had no votes, her brother was useless, and Mai was conspicuously nowhere to be found. She ground her teeth and snapped at her teachers and anyone who tried to talk to her.

\---

_"Sara" her father said "why be so calm?_

_There's just no future for a Princess of Prom"_

\---

Ty Lee and Mai were _traitors_. Azula hadn't gotten a single vote and it was Prom Night. She stared into the mirror, fixing her eyeliner and concocting a plan.

She just had to eliminate everyone who stood in her way. Then they would have no _choice_ but to name her Queen.

She resisted the urge to laugh as she straightened her gown.

\---

_"P" is for Parvati, drinking poisoned punch._

_"R" is for Rai_ _dashed on a rock (crunch)_

_"O" is what Asahi said when Azula bludgeoned her brains_

_And "M" is for Miki's marinated remains. But_ _But!_

_"Q" is for Quiyue, quiet, drowned in the pool._

_"U" is for Umiko's pieces spread round the school_

_But "E's" are for the easy way in five minutes tops_

_A one-legg'd girl can bring an "N" for end by calling the cops._

\---

"Zuko?" Sokka said, and the other boy looked up from where he was reading his textbook. "I think you might want to see this."

He clicked up the volume on the small TV set they had in the corner.

"-bodies found at Omashu High, all disposed of in various gruesome ways. The culprit, eighteen-year-old Azula Kumara, was quickly apprehended and is more likely to end up in an mental hospital than jail, considering the state she was found in. Reports say that she was screaming something about being Queen of High School Land. It was clear she was not thinking clearly, the police say, and if it is proven she was in a sane state of mind at the time, she could be facing a long, long prison sentence. Back to Feng in the studio."

Sokka turned the volume back down and looked over at his roommate, who looked about two seconds from breaking something. He stood up and put a hand on Zuko's shoulder, the latter of which was staring blankly at the TV with his fists clenched and his teeth gritted.

"Come on, buddy. Let's get you to your Uncle."

\---

_Check Sara, Choose Sara, Vote for Sara Berry_

_Check Sara, Choose Sara, Vote for Sara Berry_

**Author's Note:**

> I've had quite a bit of practice making up and researching last names (I was in the Sanders Sides fandom for roughly a year and a half) but this one is tentative.
> 
> Also the names I researched for the OCs were mostly random because I was sort of desperate. Keep a lookout for them in the future though because they exist solely to die.
> 
> Also also this takes place in a nebulous Americanish schooling system but is more like the ATLA world in the modern day in structure. The names still have similar origins to the ones in the show. There's also no bending and most schooling happens in the "Earth Region" because they have some of the best schools. They also provide transportation from all of the other regions so...
> 
> Zuko and Sokka are attending Ba Sing Se University, as well as the rest of the Gaang. They're all in the same year. Zuko is majoring in Peace/Conflict Studies with a minor in Theatre and Sokka is majoring in Psychology. (They're both subject to change if I get better ideas though)
> 
> Azula is two years younger than Zuko. I don't remember how much younger she is in canon but that's what I'm going with for this AU.
> 
> This fic will probably be the one that sticks closest to the song. The others I have sort of planned out and I hope you're ready to go back in time for Zuko's turn on the pain train. See if you can guess the song he's going to get.
> 
> Also I haven't actually finished ATLA yet so no spoilers in the comments or I'll bash your kneecaps in.
> 
> Also follow my Tumblr @randomfanderfriend and my art Instagram @loganisalwaysright


End file.
